Tiina Toomet to receive the 2018 Didier-Noël Carlotti Award

Brussels, May 2018 – The Federation of European Companion Animal Veterinary Associations (FECAVA) is proud to announce that Tiina Toomet from Estonia is the recipient of the 2018 Didier Noël Carlotti award. She will receive the award at the opening ceremony of the 24th FECAVA EuroCongress in Tallinn in June.

‘A long-time advocate of international veterinary contacts and friendships, Tiina is a very worthy candidate for this award,’ commented Wolfgang Dohne, FECAVA president.

Tiina was president of the Estonian Small Animal Veterinary Association between 1994 and 2003 and Estonian representative for both the FECAVA and the World Small Animal Veterinary Association between 1996 and 2009. Her fluent Russian allowed her to forge close links with the Russian and the Ukrainian Small Animal Veterinary Associations; she is an honorary fellow of both.

She also helped set up training programmes and has lectured widely to colleagues in Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Georgia and the Ukraine.

But with Tiina it is not so much the positions and responsibilities she has collected, as her enthusiasm, easy contact and love for travelling and meeting colleagues that have made her so popular in so many countries.

One of her hobbies is ‘visiting veterinary clinics and taking pictures of them’ and she has visited clinics in places like Sydney, the island of São Tomé, Cape Town and Nordkapp, the northernmost point of Europe. In 2014, she took a year off and travelled through Turkey, Georgia, Greece, Montenegro, Croatia, Italy and Russia, visiting as many clinics on the way as possible (see her travel blog for details).

Back home in Tallinn, she has her own clinic, which she set up in 1992. She has a particular interest in dermatology.

The Didier-Noël Carlotti Award is named after one of the leading founding members and first president of FECAVA. The award is presented annually for ‘outstanding service in the fields of inter-professional communication and/or continuing education for companion animal veterinarians in Europe’.

The jury is the Didier-Noël Carlotti Award Committee, chaired by French FECAVA Director Claude Béata.

• Photo credit: Tiit Blaat

Notes for Editors

• The Federation of European Companion Animal Veterinary Associations (FECAVA) is the platform for the promotion of the professional development and representation of companion animal veterinarians in Europe. Founded in 1990, it currently has 40 national member associations and 13 associate member associations. FECAVA represents over 25,000 companion animal practitioners throughout Europe.

• Didier-Noël Carlotti DipECVD (1951-2014) was one of the ‘founding fathers’ of FECAVA, and was pivotal behind the organisation of the first FECAVA congress, held in Paris in 1994. He was also a founding member of the European Society and founding diplomate of the European College of Veterinary Dermatology, and served as president of both organisations. He was also past president of the French companion animal veterinary organisation (AFVAC).